


Used

by ArcticLucie



Series: Needed/Wanted [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: But it works out for Daryl, Character Death(s), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Heartbreak, M/M, Multi, One-Sided Relationship, Polyamory, Rick's a douche
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 08:02:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3521651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcticLucie/pseuds/ArcticLucie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daryl had always known Rick needed him, but when they got to Alexandria, that need fell away. Luckily for him, Aaron and Eric were there to show him something much better than need. (This summary sucks!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Used

**Author's Note:**

> I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of Aaron at first, but after that last episode, I got some major Daaron feels that I just had to get out. Enjoy!

Daryl Dixon was used to being used. Even before civilization ended his father had used him as a punching bag and his brother as currency for his drugs. After things went belly up, he was used as a hunter to feed his makeshift family, a tracker, a weapon, and eventually as a warm body to keep Rick from going off the rails.

He was always good at knowing just what he was to people. To Rick he was a rock tethering him to the ground so he wouldn't fly off the handle. And he was fine with that for the most part. What he hadn't expected was to fall for the man he shared a bed with. 

He could live with that, with being used as Rick's source of comfort after Lori died, as a surrogate parent to his children, as a few moments of pleasure when there wasn't much in or outside the bleakness of the prison gates. He could even live with the fact that while he was falling, Rick was standing still.

It hurt, he couldn't lie about that. But it didn't matter because Rick was his and everyone at the prison knew better than to steal from a Dixon. Then, one day, there wasn't a prison anymore. It was gone and so was Rick. And after that, he only had Beth.

Sweet innocent Beth. The first person in the entire world, besides Judith, that didn't use him for something. She _gave_ him just as much comfort as he gave her. And it only stretched the Rick-shaped hole inside him bigger because that's all he had ever wanted from the ex-lawman. 

But he wasn't stupid enough to believe that'd he'd ever get it.

Even after he met up with Michonne, Carl, and Rick on that dark stretch of road, he knew better than to think that things would be better than they were before. He was right, things went right back to the way they had been between them, back to the _I need you's_ that now stung more than they ever used to comfort.

He sat down beside him, Rick's mouth still stained with another man's blood, and confessed. He told him that he loved him, just flat out looked him in the eye and said, "I love ya." 

And what did Rick say back? _"You're my brother."_

He'd rather've taken a million kicks to the balls than that bullshit!

The fact was that Rick did _need_ him, in more ways than one, but he didn't _want_ him. And that's what hurt. He knew deep down that he was once again being used by the one person in all of humanity that he couldn't stand to have taking advantage of him.

He had almost expected things—their relationship or whatever it was or wasn't—to evaporate as soon as the gates of Alexandria closed behind them. He wasn't needed anymore by any of them, and he was okay with that, too. He'd bide his time until the opportunity to escape those walls presented itself.

People didn't expect much from the dumb hick who seemed to have the words _'Bad News'_ tattooed on his forehead. But he was no fool. He was a lot smarter than most people gave him credit for, and he liked it that way. So he went along with it, all of it, because for the time being, it was better than being out there alone.

It wasn't so bad at first. He shared Rick's bed, he shared his house, shared the responsibility of Li'l A' and Carl. And for a split second he almost had himself convinced that he could have that life with him. That the perfect little house with the two point five kids and dinner on the table when his man got home was possible.

He bought into the illusion.

He thought that now that they were inside, rested, and somewhat protected from the feral world out there that Rick would see him and _want_ instead of just _need._ But as soon as he saw the way Rick looked at her, at Jessie, he knew it was never going to go that way for him, for them. 

Rick had just used him until something better came along. 

He knew it was only a matter of time. But fuck if it didn't hurt all the same coming face to face with it.

Even with his insides ripped to shreds, he couldn't find it in him to hate the man. Or even her. On the outside, you take what you can get, and apparently the best Rick could do was a scruffy redneck with no hope of ever being tamed. On the inside, he found the same thing he had lost with Lori. A woman who could give him that picture perfect life that Daryl had only dreamed of, and maybe a chance to do it right.

The whole thing felt kind of like poetic justice when he saw the way Rick looked at her through the window at their 'welcome' party. He stood there frozen while he watched him kiss her. And he was kind of glad that he was walking away when he noticed that Rick had the same blind lust in his eyes that Shane had had for Lori.

 _Fuck. Him._

He honestly had no idea what he was doing when he accepted Aaron's invitation to dinner. He was almost numb by that point. What he had planned on doing with the rest of the evening was to break into the storage area—the window was probably still unlocked from Carol's heist—steal some guns and food and hop the fence to chance it on his own.

That would've been better than being caged like an animal, being replaced, becoming irrelevant to the people who he had once given everything to. So what if he was feeling sorry for himself? No one else ever did!

But there was something about Aaron that made him walk through that door. It was a huge thing for someone as solitary as he was to sit there with two people who were still practically strangers and share a meal. Then, Aaron showed him the bike in pieces on the floor of his garage, and maybe his heart skipped a beat or two at the sight of it and the feel of the man's body heat closing the gap between them.

He felt the same thing out there when they were chasing that horse. He knew there was a metaphor in there somewhere if he looked hard enough, about the wild horse refusing to be tamed getting eaten by walkers. He just didn't want to look. And he didn't want to look at the feelings that were stirring something warm in his gut.

For the first several weeks, he had convinced himself that the only reason he went over to Aaron and Eric's was for the motorcycle. That was harder to believe the more time he spent there. He'd finish tinkering on the bike just in time for Eric to set the table, a third plate next to his begging to be used, and before he knew it, he was leaving later than he did the night before.

The couple became a refuge for his inner turmoil that was more than just about being caged and being used. He didn't feel like that angry outdoor cat scratching at the door to be put out when he was sitting on their couch listening to them go on about things he wasn't necessarily interested in but that they made interesting. 

Aaron and Eric knew how things were with him and Rick. He didn't tell them out right about anything concerning them, but they were smart, they could read him, both of them, and he was grateful that he didn't have to speak the words. They just smiled and showed him to the guest room one night when it was 'too late' for him to walk the four doors down the street.

He continued to share Rick's bed until he couldn't. He took care of his kids until he couldn't. He was even willing to deal with the longing stares Rick would give the married woman down the street. Until he just couldn't. 

When him and Aaron got back from their first scouting run, he unpacked his things in his and Eric's spare room— _'Daryl's room'_ said the sign Eric made for him—and never went back to the house that was never going to be his home. 

Because he just fucking couldn't. 

He doubted Rick even missed him. After Jessie's husband was conveniently out of the picture when a patient died and turned on him, he was certain that he didn't. 

That was okay because for the first time in his life, Daryl had people that he thought truly understood him and didn't have the need to use him. He was drawn to Aaron, there was no doubt about that, but Eric was growing on him everyday. And when he finally realized that he had fallen for them both, his heart was ripped out more viciously than when Rick had done it.

He was just the third wheel, he'd remind himself. They were just the friends he found when his family decided to walk away to play fucking Mayberry with Rick as Barney Fife. That wasn't exactly fair, he was the one that pulled away. Their world still revolved around Rick when his no longer could.

It wasn't until their third time out that Aaron did something that changed everything. They were holed up in a small shack out in the woods waiting for a herd to pass by when Aaron kissed him. He was quick to push him away because Daryl Dixon was not about to get in between two people so obviously in love.

"Daryl, I'm sorry...Did we read you wrong? I-I thought you wanted to," Aaron apologized. All Daryl could do was stare the man down in shock. "I really hope this doesn't mess up the friendship that we've built. It would just crush Eric and me."

"Are ya fuckin' kiddin' me?! Ya just kissed me and yer worried 'bout Eric's friendship?" he barked back. He never expected that, never expected for someone as good as Aaron to be stupid enough to jeopardize something so pure.

"He was worried about losing you if we...," Aaron sighed. "If you aren't interested in me, in us, then that's completely fine. We still want you to stay with us. We just like you Daryl, and we like having you around. If that means just as friends, then we'll take it. I took a chance here. We thought it best to take it slow so we didn't overwhelm you. That's all this was, and it's fine that it's not what you want."

"Why do ya keep sayin' 'we'?" Daryl scoffed. He was pretty sure his eyes were wider than they'd ever been as he tried to figure out just what the hell the man was trying to tell him.

"Eric and I... _we_ like you. And we were hoping that you liked us, too. We've talked a lot about this. Eric brought it up, actually. One day he told me I could have you, and while I wouldn't do anything he wasn't a hundred percent on board with, he saw whatever this is between us that has me drawn to you, and I think you two have a connection as well. So as long as you're willing to give him everything you give me, then we'll be fine."

"Ya mean ya both want me? Like together? Like a threesome?" Out of all the strange shit he'd been through in his life, that was something he'd never done.

If it was just for the sex, he had enough of being used. He wasn't sure he could go through that again, that heartbreak, that gnawing in the pit of his stomach knowing it was just a taste of something that would never be, that he could never have. A false connection in the dark.

"It's called polyamory. And it's not just about the sex if that's what you were thinking." Aaron smiled that easy nonthreatening smile of his that had a way of piercing through Daryl's armor and melting him right down to the core. 

That was pretty much how it started, how he slowly made his way into their bed and into their hearts. Although, they assured him that he had always been there, they had just been waiting for him to show up.

All his life, all he ever wanted was for one person to love him, to want him without using him, without just _needing_ him, and now he had two amazing men that did just that wholeheartedly. It was more than anything he could've imagined for himself after the shitty life he'd had.

He almost couldn't believe it himself when Carol first mentioned how happy they all looked together. He had to do a double take because 'happy' was not a word associated with a Dixon. Not only that, but they hadn't done anything to let on that they were all together. They were already outsiders, no need to hang a sign. 

Leave it to Carol to notice, though. 

Like all good things, so the saying goes, it came crashing down when a herd breached the wall. Rick lost his second lover to the treacherous world they now lived in that day while Daryl lost his first. When he was ushering Aaron away from Eric's stilled body, shirts stained with their lover's blood, he felt Rick's eyes on him burning with need, but he didn't dare turn around. 

There was no point. He had already replaced 'I need you' with 'I want you', and there was no going back.

Because Daryl Dixon was finally done with being used.

**Author's Note:**

> I really, really, _really_ wanted to make this into a longer fic instead of a one-shot because there are so many things in here I wanted to expand on, but my other WIP's would've been sooo pissed. Plus, I wasn't sure if anyone else was feeling these ships so...yeah.


End file.
